The document provides an overview of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) in healthcare applications, highlighting their use in monitoring patients' health through non-invasive, economical sensor technologies. It discusses various medical applications such as cardiovascular monitoring, cancer detection, and diabetes management while also addressing the need for improved standards and communication models. Additionally, the document outlines current challenges in the implementation of WBANs, including energy efficiency, interoperability, and security concerns.

1. TELKOMNIKA, Vol.15, No.3, September 2017, pp. 1088~1095
ISSN: 1693-6930, accredited A by DIKTI, Decree No: 58/DIKTI/Kep/2013
DOI: 10.12928/TELKOMNIKA.v15i3.5793  1088
Received April 2, 2017; Revised June 12, 2017; Accepted June 30, 2017
Wireless Body Area Networks for Healthcare
Applications: An Overview
Muhammad Anwar*1
, Abdul Hanan Abdullah2
, Kashif Naseer Qureshi3
,
Abdul Hakeem Majid4
1,2,4
Faculty of Computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
3
Faculty of Computer Science, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan
*Corresponding Author e-mail: anwer.mirza@gmail.com
Abstract
Healthcare systems have been facing various new challenges due to increasing and rising aging
population in healthcare. Advance information and communication technologies have introduced Wireless
Body Area Networks (WBANs) for healthcare systems. WBANs provide different monitoring services in
healthcare sector for monitoring their patients with more convenience. WBANs are economical solutions
and non-invasive technology for healthcare applications. This review paper provides a comprehensive
review on WBANs applications, services and recent challenges.
Keywords: WBANs, Healthcare applications, services, Telemedicine
Copyright © 2017 Universitas Ahmad Dahlan. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Recently, the main challenges in healthcare sector are increasing the aging population
decreasing healthcare facilities. According to the US Bureau of Census, it is predicted and
expected that the number of old people in the world will be double. This population was 375
million in 1990 and will be double around 761 million in 2025 [1]. Usually, the old people have
suffered with various chronic diseases and need continues medical care. Most of the patients
are staying in hospitals or need continues supervision from medical professionals, otherwise
they lives may be at risk [2].
Millions of people have died from chronic or fatal diseases every year. The most
common reasons of such fatal diseases are lack of diseases diagnostic services in time. The
authors in [3] revealed that, the most of the diseases can be controlled if they are identified in
their early stages. So there is a pressing need of proactive, affordable and fast healthcare
systems for continuous health monitoring and early detection of the diseases. With the
advancement of new wireless technologies, Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) was
introduced by Latré, et al [4]. These networks contain intelligent and small bio-medical sensors
which are implanted in patient body or on patient body. These sensor nodes process the
information and further send to a medical server where this information is stored and analyzed
by doctors or medical specialists. Different types of monitoring applications in WBANs provide
easy and cost effective solutions in healthcare.
These advance systems facilitate the patients with physical mobility support without
stay long in hospitals. In WBANs, the system has different monitoring sensors nodes such as
sensors and actuators. The sensor nodes are used to measure the certain body parameters
whereas the actuators act on received data from other sensor nodes. In addition, the personal
devices act as control unit to collect data from sensor nodes and transmit to the medical server
using wireless link [5]. Figure 1 shows the biometric sensor nodes example.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the key features and
applications of WBANs for healthcare systems. Section 3 provides WBANs wireless
communication standards. Section 4 presents WBANs architecture. Section 5 points out the
recent issue & challenges in WBANs. In last, paper concludes with future direction.

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Figure 1. Biometric sensor nodes in WBANs
2. Applications of WBANs
WBANs provide a wide range of monitoring applications in different fields such as
ubiquitous healthcare, emergency, military, sports, interactive gaming and many others [6]. In
the section, we discuss the WBANs applications for healthcare field.
2.1. Medical Applications
WBANs provide continues health monitoring of patients and manage the necessary
medication during their stay at home or elsewhere [7]. The in body sensor nodes are monitoring
patient inside organs functions such as pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators,
restoration of limb movement and control of bladder function. On-body sensor nodes are used in
medical applications to monitoring the body blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and
respiration. Some of the WBANs applications are discussed in following sub-sections.
2.1.1. Cardiovascular Application
This application is used to monitor cardiovascular disease which is one of the primary
reason of death. According to [8], more than twenty million people have effected from this
disease in the world. WBANs can be used to prevent enormous deaths by continuous
monitoring of patient for their health. The healthcare service providers can prepare patient
treatment in advance by any abnormal information from sensor nodes about heart rate or
irregular heart functions.
2.1.2. Cancer Detection Application
Nowadays cancer is one of the biggest threats for the human life. It effects millions of
people and number of effected people are increasing every year [9]. A set of small sensor
nodes have capabilities to detect the nitric oxide which usually produced by cancer cells. Sensor
nodes can be placed in the patient body infected locations in the patient body. This allows
medical professionals to detect cancer tumors without any biopsy.
2.1.3. Monitoring Blood Glucose Application
Diabetes is one of the serious chronic diseases in all over the world. According to the
World Health Organization, diabetes has been gradually increasing over the years. More than
400 million adults are suffering from diabetes in the world. If this disease is not treated properly,
it can causes some other serious complicated diseases in body like blindness, stroke, kidney
disease, heart disease and high blood pressure [10]. WBANs can provide effective treatment to
diabetes patients by providing continuous and accurate monitoring glucose level in blood.

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Currently, the typical way to measure blood glucose level is to prick the finger and place the
blood drop on the test strip. This method can damage the tissues by constant pricking over the
years. Wireless biomedical sensors can be implanted in the patient body and less invasive to
monitor the body glucose level several times in a day. Through WBAN sensors, doctors also
inject insulin in patient automatically using actuator node whenever a glucose level is reached at
certain threshold [11].
2.1.4. Asthma Detection Application
WBANs applications can help millions of asthma patients by detecting allergic agents in
the environment and provide continues feedback to the physician as well as patient [12].
2.1.5. Stress Monitoring Application
Stress is a foremost cause of illness and different diseases. Chronic stress leads to
produce psychological issues such as high depression and anxiety. It can also cause of high
coronary heart disease, morbidity and mortality. WBANs can provide real time monitoring and
stress in individuals and help their physicians for proper treatment [13].
2.1.6. Artificial Retina Application
Retina prosthesis chips can be implanted in the human eye, which will help patients
who are suffering from no vision or limited vision and able to see at adequate level. In the Smart
Sensors and Integrated Microsystems (SSIM) project by Wayne State University and Kresge
Eye Institute, a retina test system developed which consist of integrated circuit and array of
sensors [11, 14].
2.1.7. General Health Monitoring Applications
WBANs have also been proposed for general health monitoring. These types of
applications help those patients which are free from the hospital however their health status is
continuously monitored by these applications.
2.2. Non-Medical Applications
WBANs also offer other non-medical applications such as for public safety, monitoring
battlefield activities, gaming and entertainment applications.
3. WBANs Standards
With the growing popularity and wide variety of WBANs applications in medical and
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), this technology needs more new
standards and communication models. One of the most successful standard in WBANs is IEEE
802.In addition, for the standardization of WBANs, IEEE established a Task Group in 2007. The
aim of this group is to establishing a communication standard for low power WBANs nodes to
support various medical and non-medical applications. This group was released IEEE 802.15.6
in February 2012 as the first international WBANs Standard. This standard defines Media
Access Control (MAC) Layers and several physical layers standards such as Narrowband (NB),
Ultra-wideband (UWB), and Human Body Communications (HBC) as shows in Figure 2. The
selection of PHY layer or frequency band depends on the application type which is also
addressed by the communication standard [12].
In most of the countries, the available frequencies for WBANs are regulated by their
relevant authorities. Table 1 shows the summery of available frequency bands for WBANs [15]
adopted by different counties. Medical Implant Communications Services (MICSs) band is a
licensed band which was reserved for implant communications in WBANs with 402-405MHz
frequency range in many countries.
Wireless Medical Telemetry Services (WMTSs) is another licensed band reserved for
medical telemetry systems. Both MICS and WMTS bands do not have ability to support high
data rate applications. Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) and Ultra-wideband (UWB)
bands support high data rate applications and are available globally. However, there is a
possibility of interference as many wireless devices operates in the 2.4GHz band [13].

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Figure 2. IEEE 802.15.6 MAC and PHY Layers Standards
Table 1. Frequency bands for WBANs
Frequency band Description
5 to 50 MHz Human Body Communication (HBC) Band
402 to 405 MHz Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) band, Narrowband (NB)
420to 450 MHz WMTS Band (used in Japan), Narrowband (NB)
605 to 614 MHz
1395 to 1400 MHZ
WMS Band (used in USA), Narrowband (NB)
863 to 870 MHz WMTS Band (used in Europe), Narrowband (NB)
902 to 928 MHz ISM Band (used in New Zealand, Australia, North America), Narrowband (NB)
950 to 956 MHz Used in Japan) Narrowband (NB)
2360 to 2400 MHz Narrowband (NB)
2400 to 2450 MHz ISM Band (used in Worldwide), Narrowband (NB)
3100 to 1600 MHz UWB Band
3.1. MAC Layer Specifications for WBANs
According to the IEEE802.15.6 standard [14], the WBANs consist of a single hub and
several sensor nodes. The sensor nodes are connected through one or two hopped star
WBANs. A hub controls the entire operation of each WBANs. In a two hopped start WBANs,
data frames are exchanged between a node and the hub through a relay capable node.
Figure 3. WBAN MAC format
• Beacon Mode with Super frame Boundaries
• Non-beacon Mode with Super frame Boundaries
• Non-beacon Mode without Super frame Boundaries

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As per IEEE802.15.6 standard, the channel is partitioned into super frames or beacon
periods of same length. Each super frame contains number of allocations slots which are used
for data transmission. The boundaries of the beacon period and allocation slots are selected by
the hub.
The hub may also shift or rotate the offsets of the beacon period. Generally, the
beacons are transmitted in each beacon period except in inactive super frames or unless
prohibited by regulations such as in MICS band. The IEEE standard 802.15.6 network operates
in one of the following modes.
3.2. PHY Layer Specifications for WBANs
IEEE 802.15.6 standard is classified for physical (PHY) layer and divided into three
types: Narrowband (NB), Ultra-wideband (UWB), and Human Body Communications (HBCs).
The UWB and HBC are mandatory for PHYs layer whereas NB PHY is optional [16]. The
functions of physical layers are activation & deactivation of radio transceiver of the nodes, clear
channel assessment and data transmission & reception.
3.2.1. Narrowband PHY Specifications
NB PHY transforms physical layer service data unit (PSDU) into a Physical layer
Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) by appending physical layer preamble and physical layer header
with PSDU. The physical layer preamble and physical layer header support for demodulating,
decoding and deliver of PSDU at receiver end.
PPDU format consists of three main components which are listed by transmission order
are (1) Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) preamble (2) PLCP Header (3) PSDU.
Whereas, preamble are used to help the receiver for time synchronization and carrier-offset
recovery. The second main component of PPDU is PLCP header at the receiver end, the
decoding of PSDU conveys the necessary information about the PHY layer parameters. Data
rates of the available frequency band are used to transmitting the PSDU. It consists MAC
header, frame body and Frame Check Sequence (FCS).
3.2.2. Ultra-wideband PHY Specifications
Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) PHY layer provides opportunities for large scope
implementation in WBANs for high performance, ultra-low power operations and low complexity.
The signal power level of UWB lies in MICS band. Therefore this level provides harmless effect
to the human body by providing safe power level to other low power devices as well as to
human body. The UWB PHY layer uses Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) to
provide data interface to MAC layer. UWB PHY provides the following functionalities:
1. Activation and deactivation of the radio transceivers.
2. The PLCP creates Physical Layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) which consists of
Synchronization Header (SHR), Physical layer Header (PHR), and PSDU. To transmit on the
wireless medium, the PPDU bits are converted into RF signals.
3. To verify the activity in the wireless medium, the UWB PHY may also provide the
Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) indication to MAC.
3.2.3. Human Body Communication PHY Specifications
Human Body Communications (HBC) physical layer uses the Electric Field
Communication (EFC) technology. It works at 21 MHz centered frequency. The HBC packet
consists of PLCP Preamble, Start Frame Delimiter (SFD), PLCP Header, and PHY Payload
(PSDU) whereas the MAC Header, MAC Frame Body, and Frame Check Sequence (FCS)
constitute the PHY Payload. Before transmission of data, it is spreading in frequency domain by
frequency selective spread codes and centered frequency for transmission is selected. This
method is known as Frequency Selective Digital Transmission (FSDT) scheme [17]. The HBC
packet structure shows in Figure 4.

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Figure 4. Packet structure of HBC PHY
4. WBANs System Architecture
WBANs systems architecture is illustrated in Figure 5 which consists of several wireless
devices and network components.
Sensors Nodes: Sensor nodes measure the vital parameters of human body and
process the collected data and transmitted to the control unit. Some types of these sensor
nodes are Heartbeat, Temperature, Humidity, DNA Sensor, Transmission Plasmon Biosensor,
Thermistor, Magnetic Biosensors, Spirometer, Blood Glucose, Pulse Oximetry, Motion,
Electrocardiogram (ECG), EEG, and EMG. The design of sensor nodes of WBANs is critical and
should fulfill the main requirements such as wear ability, reliability, security and interoperability.
A sensor node consists of sensor hardware, processor, memory, power unit and a transceiver.
Actuator Nodes: This device act according to the data received from the sensor node
or through the interaction with user. It consists of actuator hardware to administer medicine,
processor, memory, power unit and transmitter/transceiver.
Personal device/Control Unit: A device that collects the information from sensors and
actuators and sent to the medical server over internet. This device is also called a Body Control
Unit (BCU).
Figure 5. System Architecture of WBANs
The sensor nodes are attached on the body which are always activated and
continuously send their data to Network Coordinator. They consume high energy but it reduces
the operational time.
This configuration causes high energy consumption in all medical sensors and reduces
their operational time. WBANs architecture presented in Figure 1, it showed several key
components. Different types of medical sensors can be used for monitoring various vital
parameters. Figure 2, represents the other form of WBANs in which data from the multiple
nodes transmitted through the internet to multiple clients.
5. Existing Challenges
In this section, we describe the current issues and challenges of WBANs. The open
research issues related to the growing technology of WBANs are like energy efficiency of

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sensors, architecture and protocol design, interoperability, security & privacy, and quality of
service.
Energy efficiency of the WBANs sensor nodes are the main critical issue in ubiquitous
mobile health monitoring systems. The rechargeable batteries may be one of the solutions but
recharging the batteries of several sensor nodes may be a burden for the patients. Especially
the elderly patients may forget to get recharge on time. So the auto rechargeable systems may
be applied to overcome this issue. There is a need of studying energy scavenging techniques
[18]. The researchers from biochemistry side are trying to apply the techniques to optimize the
energy of the battery by some phosphates presents in a human body. The computer science
researcher has applied the multiple approaches during the data transmission at RF radio
frequency bandwidth. They applied these techniques for the better data transmission including
CDMA, FDMA, CSMA and TDMA, the best one found among these are TDMA.
Security is one of the concerned topics in WBANs network to protect privacy of medical
data. Security of the WBANs depends upon data confidentiality, data authentications, and
secures localization secure management. These are the main factors to secure any wireless
network.There are variety of security attacks like Denial of Service Attacks (DOS), privacy
violation and physical attacks. When applied on the network and different results have been
answered.
Table 2. Layers and Attacks
Layers Types of Attack Suggested Solution
Physical layer Jamming Prevent from intruders and extruders
Link layer Collision, Tampering TDMA
Network layer Misdirection Side channel analysis
Transport Authentication Authentication certificate of the data
There are different best securities methods have been applied to secure the data.
Welch Gong (WG) technique employs for the designed ubiquitous computing and produces
good result for the security. Other modern public key cryptography techniques like lattice based
cryptography, elliptic curve cryptography and quantum cryptography are also used for secure
the network.
Architecture of the WBANs has its own importance and it is divided into three levels.
1. Level – 1 (Lowest level – contains intelligent sensors)
2. Level – 2 (Devices communicate with external low level devices)
3. Level – 3 (External servers which provide different tasks and services)
Server keeps the record for managing the data of the patients and provided when user
demanded. Data management of sensor node is another issue. It reduces the usage of sensor
node. At the same time, the data management and security assistance of the architecture is
another main issue.
Quality of Service (QoS) is a major aspect in WBANs. The main concern of QoS is
optimal utilization of resources over wireless networks and Internet. Unfortunately, this area did
not get lot of interest from the researchers like other areas such as energy efficiency and
security. There is limited work available in the area of QoS. The major QoS Challenges are
resource limitations, Unpredictable traffic pattern, network instability, data redundancy and
energy balance [19].
6. Conclusion
WBANs have been gained popularity due to its different monitoring applications and
healthcare services. The modern health systems provide more convenient for the patients and
medical centers. This paper reviewed this area in a broad manner, its standards and
applications, architecture. In addition, this paper provides a platform to understand the WBANs
for further research and highlighted its benefits and current research challenges. In future, we
will discuss in depth overview to highlight the technical issues in the field of WBANs.

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